


Eternal

by CadetDru



Series: Virtues of the Arrangement [4]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Hope, M/M, Seven Heavenly Virtues, The Arrangement (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 08:23:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19372924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru
Summary: Hope springs eternal; the play is the thing. Aziraphale wanted the play to be a success, so Hamlet was a smash hit.





	Eternal

Crowley hoped that Hamlet was a success. His default nature was hope.  He was the dragon from whom damsels in distress were rescued. He hoped for the damsel to break herself free each time. He was never happier, after the Fall, than when he and Aziraphale got to take turns being the dragon, knight, or distressed damsel.

His thoughts ran in slow, definitive circles. The paths were worn down into what had once been his soul.  He wanted, which was encouraged in a demon.  He hoped against hope, which was not encouraged.  

He hated Hamlet, the play and the character.  Crowley felt bad for poor Ophelia, used and cast aside. How many young women, young men, old women and men, had gone through the same situation because of Crowley's machinations? Being seduced, falling in love before falling into madness leading into an untimely and unseemly end.

Ophelia was a damsel that needed saving, with no one left to save her. He couldn't find a way to get Shakespeare to change her destiny without unravelling the whole thing.  It was a favor that Crowley was paying the angel playing at being a demon.  He owed him that much, and more.

Aziraphale had gone to Scotland, and come back to the play being a hit.  They went back to the play, tiny changes only a part of what had made it a hit.  It was too crowded for them now, but the voices carried and Aziraphale knew the general idea.

"That poor girl," Aziraphale said afterwards. "Picking her flowers for her father's funeral, and drowning."

"She was picking flowers for her own.  And how did Gertrude know so much about her skirts getting pulled down? The girl was literally hopeless.  She had no prince, no father, no expectation of her brother coming back... of course she killed herself."

"Suicide is a sin," Aziraphale said flatly, in that way he had when he wasn't at all certain about the policies of the Good.  "Everyone else died by the hand of another, she died by her own.  Or by an accident, which I believe is what Mr. Shakespeare would prefer us to think."

"Of course it isn't," Crowley scoffed.  "He knows what he's doing.  She was killed by Hamlet, just as much as her father was. She lost hope." 

"My dear boy, are you quite alright?" Aziraphale said, trying to choose his words with care. 

"Not at all," Crowley admitted. "The play has made me melancholy. I lost my mirth when Hamlet did."

They were walking down a street, being watched by human, ethereal, and occult forces.  This time period in England would not be understanding if Crowley unfurled his black wings to embrace Aziraphale in a passionate kiss.  There had yet to be a time in human history where it would have been allowed; at different periods, they could do it as men, but never as angels or demons might do.  He could convince the forces of Hell that he was deliberately seducing the angel, it being the truth. It was the opposite of redemption, but it could bring him a kind of satisfaction.  A small victory would be a victory nonetheless.

Crowley hoped for so much that he would never get. 

"Cheer up," Aziraphale said.  There was a brush of lips on Crowley's cheek for a moment, before he could register what was happening.  "Being affected by art is a good thing. You'll find your mirth again."

Crowley tried on a smile.

"For now, we must part," Aziraphale said.

Crowley's smile wavered.  "Such sweet sorrow."

This warranted a kiss on the opposite cheek, and they went their separate ways.  

**Author's Note:**

> Crowley's views on Ophelia are the author's own, and probably not Crowley's.


End file.
